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Ku'Klux Testimony 

Relating to Alabama 



BY 



WALTER L. FLEMING 

of the Department of History of the University of West Virginia 



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P U B L I S H p: I) IN 



The Gulf States Historical Magazine 

November, 1903 




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THE KU KI.UX TESTIMONY RELATING TO 
ALABAMA. 

By Walter E- Fleming, West Virginia University. 

In 1869-70 the Radical leaders began to observe signs in 
the Southern States that indicated the growing strength of 
the Democratic party. The Fifteenth Amendment was added 
to the Constitution by the forced ratifications of Virginia, 
Texas, Mississippi and Georgia. President Grant sent in a 
message to Congress announcing the ratification as "the most 
important event that has occurred since the nation came into 
life." Congress responded to the hint in the message by 
passing the first of the Enforcement Acts. For two years 
this measure had been impending, and the excuse now for 
making it a law was that the Ku Klux organizations would 
pievent the blacks from voting in the fall of 1870. This act 
was approved on May 31, 1870; a supplementary Enforce- 
ment Act was passed on February 28, 1871; and on April 20, 
1 87 1, the last of the series, the notorious "Ku Klux" Act, 
was passed into law.* 

The effect of these Enforcement Acts was to take over 
to the Central Government all the powers of the State govern- 
ments relating to suffrage and elections.! 

The acts were said to be for the purpose of enforcing the 
XlVth and XVth Amendments. 

The laws were ostensibly but not really aimed at the Ku 
Klux movement. The Ku Klux organizations had disbanded 
before 1870. The South was more peaceful than it had been 
in 1868 and i86g, but was more Democratic. The real pur- 
pose was to prevent the newly reconstructed Southern States 
from being carried by the Democrats in the elections of 1870 
and 1872. It was especiall}' important that those States be 
held in the Republican ranks until after the presidential elec- 
tion in 1872. To justify this "Force" legislation, and to ob- 

"■■■Textof the Acts in McPherson, Reconstruction, 546-550; McPher- 
son, Hand-book of Politics (1872), 3-8. So-87. 

fSee Burgess, Reconstructwn and the Constitution, 257, 258, for dis- 
cussion of the Force laws. 



tain material for use in the next year's campaign, Congress 
appointed a committee to investigate the condition of affairs 
in the Southern States. This committee was organized on 
April 20, 1 87 1, the date of the approval of the Ku Klux Act.* 

The members of the sub-committee that took testimony 
in Alabama were: Senators Pratt and Rice, and Messrs. 
Blair, Beck and Buckley, of the House. Blair and Beck, the 
Democratic members, were never present together. So the 
sub-committee consisted of three Republicans and one Demo- 
crat. C. W. Buckley was a carpet-bag Representative from 
Alabama, a former Bureau reverend, who worked hard to con- 
vict the white people of the State. 

The sub-committee held sessions in Huntsville, October 
6-14; Montgomery, October 17-20; Demopolis, October 23-28; 
Livingston, October 30 to November 3; and in Columbus, 
Miss., for West Alabama, November 11. All these places 
were in Black counties. Sessions were held only at easily ac- 
cessible places, and where scalawag, carpet-bag and negro 
witnesses could easily be secured. Testimony was also taken 
by the committee in Washington from June to August, 1871. 

It is generally believed that the examination of witnesses 
by the Ku Klux Committee of Congress was a very one-sided 
affair, and that the testimony is practically without value for 
the historian, on account of the immense proportion of hear- 
say reports and manufactured tales embraced in it. Of course 
there is much that is worthless because untrue, and much that 
may be true but cannot be regarded because of the character 
of the witnesses whose statements are unsupported. But, 
nevertheless, the 2,008 pages of testimony taken in Alabama 
are a mine of information concerning the social, religious, edu- 
cational, political, legal, administrative, agricultural and finan- 
cial conditions in Alabama from 1865 to 1871. The report 
itself, of 632 pages, contains much that is not in the testi- 
mony, especially as regards railroad and cotton frauds, tax- 
ation and the public debt, and much of this information can 
be secured nowhere else. 

The minority members of the sub-committee which took 
testimony in Alabama, General Frank P. Blair and later Mr. 

*See Report of the Committee, 1, 2, which is Senate Report No. 41, 
Part 1, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., or House Report No. 22, Part 1, 42d Cong., 
2d Sess. • 

Author 
••'„ • (Person) 

i) 0'05 



Beck, of New York, had summoned before the committee at 
Washington, and before the sub-committee in Alabama, the 
most prominent men of the State — men who, on account of 
their positions, were intimately acquainted with the condition 
of affairs in the State. General Blair took care that the ex- 
amination covered everything that had occurred since the war. 
The Republican members often protested against the evidence 
that Blair proposed to introduce, and ruled it out. He took 
exceptions, and sometimes the committee at Washington ad- 
mitted it; sometimes he smuggled it in any way, by means of 
cross questioning, or else he incorporated it into the minority 
report. On the other hand, the Republican members of the 
sub-committee seem to have felt that the object of the investi- 
gation was only to get a lot of campaign stories for the use of 
the Radical party in the coming elections. They summoned 
a sorry class of witnesses, a large proportion of whom were 
ignorant negroes who could only tell what they had heard or 
had feared. The best of the Radicals were not summoned 
unless by the Democrats. In several instances the Democrats 
caused to be summoned the prominent scalawags and carpet- 
baggers, who usually gave testimony damaging to the Radical 
cause. 

An examination of the testimony shows that sixty-four 
Democrats and Conservatives were called before the commit- 
tee and sub-committee. Of these, fifty-seven were Southern 
men, five were Northern men residing in the State, and two 
were negroes. The Democrats testified at great length, often 
twenty to fifty pages. Blair and Beck tried to bring out 
everything concerning the character of carpet-bag rule.* 

Thirty-four scalawags, fifteen carpet-baggers and forty- 
one negro Radicals came before the committee and sub-com- 
mittee. Some of these were summoned by Blair or Beck, and 
a number of them disappointed the Republican members of 



* Some of the Conservatives who testified were: General Cullen A. 
Battle, R. H. Abercrombie, General James H. Clanton, P. M. Dox, Gov- 
ernor Robert B. Lindsay, Reuben Chapman, Thomas Cobbs, Daniel 
Coleman, Jefferson M. Falkner, William H. Forney, William M. Lowe, 
William Richardson, Francis S. Lyon, William S. Mudd. General Ed- 
mund W. Pettus, Turner Reavis, James L. Pugh, P. T. Sayre, R. W. 
Walker— all prominent men of the highest character. 



the committee by giving good Democratic testimony.* The 
Radicals could only repeat, with variations, the story of the 
Eutaw riot, the Patona affair, the Huntsville parade, etc. Of 
the prominent carpet-baggers and scalawags whose testimony 
was anti- Democratic, most were men of unsavory character. f 

The testimony of the higher Federal officials was mostly 
in favor of the Democratic contention. J 

The negro testimony, however worthless it may appear at 
first sight, becomes as clear as day to one who, knowing the 
negro mind, remembers the influences then operating upon it. 
From this class of testimony one gets valuable hints and sug- 
gestions. The character of the white scalawag and carpet-bag 
testimony is more complex, but if one has the history of the 
witness, the testimony usually becomes clear. In many in- 
stances the testimony gives a short history of the witness. 

The material collected by the Ku Klux Committee and 
other committees that investigated affairs in the South after 
the war, can be used with profit only by one who will go to 
the biographical books and learn the social and political his- 
tory of each person who testified. When the personal his- 
tory of the important witness is known, many things become 
plain. Unless this is known, one cannot safely accept or re- 
ject any specific testimony. To one who works in Alabama 
reconstruction. Brewer's A /ada?na, Garrett' s J^emittiscenccs , the 
Memorial Record, old newspaper files and the memories of old 
citizens are indispensable. 

There is in the first volume of the Alabama Testimony a 
delightfully partisan index of seventy-five pages. In it the 
summary of Democratic testimony shows up almost as Radi- 
cal as the worst on the other side. It is meant only to bring 
out the violence in the testimony. According to it, one would 

* Some of those who gave, willingly or unwillingly. Democratic testi- 
mony: W. T. Blackford (s.). Judge Busteed (c). General Cranford, 
Nich. Davis (s ), L,. W. Day (c), Samuel A. Hale (c), (brother of 
John P. Hale, of New Hampshire), J. H. Speed (s.), United States 
Senator Willard Warner (c. ), N. L. Whitfield (s). 

(c.) — Carpet-bagger, (s.) — Scalawag. 

tCharles Hays (s.), W. B. Jones (s.), S. F. Rice (s.), John A. Minnis 
(s.), Parson Lakin (s.), B. W. Norris (s.), L. E. Parsons (s.), E. W. 
Peck (s.), and D. R. Smith (c). The three last were the most respect- 
able of the lot, but were disappointed politicians. 

X Day, Busteed, VanValkenburg, General Cranford, etc. 



think all those killed or mistreated were Radicals. The same 
man frequently figures in three situations, as shot, outraged 
and killed. General Clanton's testimony of thirty pages 
gets a summary of four inches, which tells nothing; that of 
Wager, a Bureau agent, gets as much as twelve pages, which 
tell something; and that of Minnis, a scalawag, twice as much. 
There is very little to be found in the testimony that relates 
directly to the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations. Had 
the sessions of the sub-committee been held in the white coun- 
ties of North and Southwest Alabama, where the Klans had 
flourished, probably they might have found out something 
about the organization. But the minority members were de- 
termined to expose the actual condition of affairs in the State 
from 1865 to 1 87 1. No matter how much the Radicals might 
discover concerning unlawful organizations, the Democrats 
stood ready with an immense deal of facts concerning Radical 
misgovernment to show cause why such organizations should 
arise. Consequently the three volumes of testimony relating-*, 
to Alabama are by no means pro- Radical except in the atti- 
tude of the majority of the examiners.* 

Below is given a table of alleged Ku Klux outrages, com- ^ 
piled from the testimony taken. The Ku Klux report classi- 
fies all violence under the four heads: Killing, Shooting, 
Outrage, Whipping. The same case frequently figures in two 
or more classes. Practically every case of violence, whether 
political or not, is brought into the testimony. The period 
covered is from 1865 to 1871. Radical outrages as well as 
Democratic are listed in the report as Ku Klux outrages. In 
a number of cases Radical outrages are made to appear as 
Democratic, Many of the cases are simply hearsay. It is 
not likely that many instances of outrage escaped notice; for 
'every case of actual outrage was proven by many witnesses. 
Every violent death of man, woman or child, white or black. 
Democratic or Radical, occurring between 1865 and 1871 ap- 
pears in the list as a Ku Klux outrage. Evidently careful 
search had been made, and the witnesses had informed them- 
selves about every actual deed of violence. There were sixty. 

-Senate Report, No. 48, Parts 8, 9 and 10, or House Report, No. 22, 
Parts 8, 9 and 10, contains the Alabama Testimony. 



four counties in the state and in only twenty-nine of them 
were there alleged instances of Ku Klux outrage: 

TABI.E OF ALLEGED OUTRAGES COMPILED FROM THE KU 
KLUX TESTIMONY. 



COUNTY. 



Autauga 

Blount, k 

Calhoun 

Chambers, k. 
Cherokee, k_. 

Choctaw, X 

Coosa 

Colbert, k 

Dallas, X 

Fayette, k 

Greene, x 

Hale, X 

Jackson 

Lauderdale ._ 
Lawrence, k__ 



11 



bJO 



W) 



COUNTIES. 



Limestone, k 

Macon, x 

Madison, x 

Marshall, k 

Marengo, x 

Montgomery, x. 

Morgan, k _. 

Perry, x 

Pickens, x ._ ,_. 

Sumter, x 

St. Clair 

Tallapoosa, k 

Tuscaloosa, k 

Walker, k 



X — Black Counties and K— White Counties where Ku Klux Klans 
operated. 



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